ORDER CARNASSIER. 373 



catalogues. Our countryman Bruce, and a Swedish gentle- 

 man, Mr. Shioldebrand, each claim the honour of introduc- 

 ing the Fennec to the scientific world. The latter, as Bruce 

 asserts by the exercise of a petty and unworthy artifice, 

 certainly got the start of the former. Neither of their 

 descriptions, however, has been sufficient to determine 

 the generic character of the animal, and it has accordingly 

 been appropriated in turn to almost every genus of Mam- 

 malia. 



Buffon gave a figure of it in his work, from a drawing 

 sent him by Bruce. He seems to place it between the 

 Squirrel and the Hare. 



Bruce, subsequently, in his travels, describes it ; and M. 

 Blumenbach, from his description, refers it to the Civets. 



Sparman identified it with a South African animal, called 

 at the Cape, Zerda, a name adopted in consequence by 

 Gmelin, Pennant, Boddaert, and others. The real Zerda 

 seems likely to be a Fox. 



Mr. Pennant, without attempting to determine its generic 

 appropriation, intimates his opinion that it is a Vulpine 

 animal. 



Illiger describes the teeth, but does not state his authority, 

 or where he inspected his type. He makes a new genus of 

 the animal under the name Megalotis, and places it by the 

 side of the Hyaenas. 



M. Geoffroy St. Hilaire, notwithstanding Bruce's de- 

 scription, which he assumes to be incorrect, and with all 

 that ingenuity and research of which he is so capable, with- 

 draws the Fennec from among the carnivorous animals, and 

 makes it a Galago, to which we have alluded in our observa- 

 tions on the animals proper to that subdivision. 



M. Desmarest, on the contrary, gives Bruce credit for 

 the accuracy of his description, and opposes the deductions 

 of M. Geoffroy. It does not appear whether the former 

 naturalist had the opportunity of inspecting a specimen, 



